Category: Leadership
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WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A ‘HOT COALS’ LEADER?

Many years ago… more than I really care to think about, I had a manager who was what I would term a hot coals leader. The term ‘hot coals’ leader is someone that you would walk across hot coals for, even though they would never ask you to do that. Those familiar with Tony Robbins…
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THE ONE MISSING INGREDIENT IN YOUR TEAM

I’ve been doing a lot of work with leaders and their teams over the past fifteen years or so, and I discovered one absolute truth. In every single team where there is dysfunction (and by dysfunction I mean performance issues, conduct or behavioural issues, backstabbing, gossiping, blame cultures, a lack of accountability etc) there is…
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HOW TO BUILD PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE TEAMS

I was watching something on tv the other day and there was an interaction between two colleagues in the workplace. The first said that “for all intensive purposes” what he had done was the right thing to do. His colleague immediately jumped in and corrected him saying that the phrase he was looking for was…
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MAKE BETTER DECISIONS

The workplace will present you with a number of decision points throughout the day. Some of these will be small decisions, and some will be big decisions which impact other people, organisational outcomes or future direction. Of all the various options you could choose, how do you know which is the better option? How do…
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CAN YOU PLEASE JUST TELL ME WHAT I’M DOING RIGHT?

In the words of Maya Angelou “people may soon forget the words you say… but they never forget how your words make them feel.” So how can we use this same principle when giving feedback to our people?
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WHY YOU NEED A CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICER…

You won’t get any argument from me about the importance of the various corporate functions that deliver organisational performance and success. Your C-suite will probably reflect those roles that are most valued by the organisation. You will likely have a Chief Executive Officer (or similar,) some business line Executive Directors or General Managers, and then…
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THE OPPOSITE OF LEADERSHIP

Let’s start with a hard truth: Many people in leadership or management roles got promoted to to these positions based on either their individual job performance or tenure. It is unlikely that they were selected for their natural ability to effectively lead, serve, and engage other human beings to be and do their best. The…
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“PEOPLE DON’T LEAVE JOBS…”

The old cliché about people not leaving jobs but leaving managers exists because its true.
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HOW TO MANAGE EMPLOYEES BEHAVING BADLY

It’s the easiest thing in the world to manage a team of talented high performers who all get along with each other, but in my experience these teams are essentially rainbow coloured unicorns. I won’t deny their existence, but very few of us have ever seen one. Now when we talk about employees behaving badly,…

